Letters to the editor

Selling state assets a scandal

In blaming the Libs for selling our power ownership (and I do too) the reason has to be repeated ad nauseum, it was sold to pay off some of the State Bank disaster, which occurred during Labor’s time in government. It appears they have learnt nothing!

What springs to mind is the gradual selling off of state assets during the last 15 years of Labor.

There is nothing much said about the scandal by Labor supporters - and scandal it is.

It should be illegal to sell state assets.

They belong to the taxpayers of this state not politicians.

Politicians of any colour need to go back to school take a crash course in credit and debit and apply the knowledge to all future dealings.

Do politicians need ‘on time and on budget’ tattooed on their foreheads?

The current mob seem to be lawyers posing as politicians and look where that has landed us.

A lot of talking heads.

GENNY SECKER

Cummins

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

Ever wonder why at any time in our world there is a war happening somewhere? Nobody wins wars, both sides suffer human loss and countries can be laid waste.

You can see by the news reports cities are destroyed by bombing.

Do we, the global community, like being losers?

There is some serious dysfunction in our minds.

Fear, hatred, greed, and religious beliefs can all be triggers to start serious conflicts.

The first Great War was triggered by the assassination of the German Kaiser.

What happened afterthat was insane as we all know.

In World War I Australians were sent to Europe and the Middle East why did they go? Because England wanted them to.

Many of the young Aussies would have been descendants of convicts banished from England and send to the other side of the world to survive or perish. Whatever, England could not be bothered.

Many of these young men were ordered by the English officers to clamber out of trenches to face a wall of bullets from German and Turkish machine guns.

In World War II Australians once again went to Europe and the Middle East to fight alongside British soldiers but when the Japanese nation joined in and were advancing ever closer to our country, we had a logistics problem.

Our very best soldiers, (the regular battalions) on Winston Churchill’s request were deployed in Europe and the Middle East.

So, who were left?

The Melbourne based 39th Battalion were not real soldiers, they were basically rounded up and put in uniform.

They were called ‘The Chocolate Soldiers’, or ‘Chocos’.

These men who did not have any experience fighting were sent to New Guinea to stop the advancing Japanese.

In early skirmishes the ‘Chocos’ suffered many casualties but eventually the real soldiers were redeployed to New Guinea and our country was saved from invasion.

My father, Jack Tyrrell, was a ‘Choco’. He did not give his life for his country but the experience of living a night mare damaged his wellbeing seriously.

He went to a repatriation hospital when returning from the war.

It is difficult to comprehend the brutality, the lunacy of wars.

Perhaps one day mankind will choose to live in peace rather than die in wars.

WAYNE TYRRELL

Port Lincoln

All submissions must include an address and contact number. (The address and phone number are not for publication.) Letters must carry the writer’s name for publication.